Book Of The Month March, 2008
Ishq And MushqPriya Basil
Take off your clothes I want to see you Karam said.Just a few words, spoken like a caress made Sarna start wondering. Where did he learn such new and passionate techniques? When Sarna Singh leaves the lustrous green hills of Uganda for England, streets of cramped old houses were not what she was expecting. Husband Karam has been seduced by the historical feel of the city of London. Sarna, however, is convinced they have moved to England so he can visit his secret London lady friends. Sarna has a secret of her own, but she is adept at hiding it. She impresses her English teacher with her attempt at a cutglass accent, and copious gifts of delicious food. With two children to educate, money is scarce, and soon, she is devising weekly shoplifting expeditions to the supermarket. But all the while, Sarna is tormented by a mistake she made as a young woman in India. To stifle unwanted memories, she cooks zealously, sweetening her thoughts with syrup, or suffocating them with the hottest spice she can find. But when she receives an unexpected letter from back home, her assumed equilibrium is shattered to the skies. It carries an ultimatum she cannot ignore Set on an epic backdrop from Partition, the Coronation and Churchill s funeral, to the present day, Priya Basil explores with compassion, the universal complexities of vanity and love. Her sensuous portrayal of the trials and tribulations of the Singh family carries universal truths for all of us.
What We Think
Rochelle Venables, Transworld Editorial, on Ishq and Mushq:
I love books that take on big political events and weave amongst them deeply personal stories that humanise those historical moments for us. And Ishq and Mushq is no exception. From Partition to Churchill’s funeral, we’re fully immersed in the big events that shaped the twentieth century world, whilst at the same time caught up in a deliciously sensuous web of family secrets and hidden relationships. Sarna is a brilliantly conceived character, deeply flawed and yet struggling with what it means to be a good wife and a good mother. And that’s what is so wonderful about this novel, that for all of its exoticism and particularities, it presents a universal experience: from Uganda to England, from east to west, when you are part of a family there are dramas and passions and suffering and secrets, and it’s those human experiences that connect us all. Full of colourful characters and gorgeous, hunger-inducing descriptions of food, it’s a deeply moving and often laugh-out loud-funny book. I couldn’t recommend Ishq and Mushq more: it’s a perfect reading group novel…